A blood covenant will always be unbreakable

TODAY marks the beginning of a week that is at the core of the Christian faith and is supremely significant to followers of the religion.

The death of Jesus Christ is what defines Christianity.

That Jesus, who was also named Immanuel, was a towering historical figure cannot be disputed.

However, although he was immaculately conceived, at least according to Bishop Lazi and many Christians like him, what seems to be dubitable and arguable among various religions and faiths is his divinity.

Argue as much as you might and like, but we, Christians, believe that he was the Son of God and also part of the Holy Trinity — the Father, Son and Holy Spirit — which also makes him God.

This is the beauty of freedom of expression and worship. But the Bishop would not like to distract you with this mind-bending theological stuff. You see, as a historical figure, Jesus lived in a Jewish community that was under the tyrannical hold of the Roman Empire, a political unit that grew out of Italy and progressively spread its influence and power to swathes that included the entire Mediterranean basin.

Its tentacles also extended to North Africa, Egypt, Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey and Syria, among other territories.

In particular, Judea, under which area Bethlehem (Jesus’ birthplace) also fell, was one of the client kingdoms of Rome.

When Man killed God

But the Roman Empire largely grew through conquest, invasion and pure brute force. So, the Romans were essentially nasty, brutal and barbaric — if not downright evil.

These are the people who built the Colosseum in Rome in order to watch the bloody sport where gladiators would fight to the death just for the sadistic amusement of onlookers.

And these are the people who used and perfected crucifixion as capital punishment for the condemned.

This method of execution — usually reserved for slaves and pirates, among other people who were considered human vermin — was designed to be humiliating and excruciatingly painful.

Victims were first mercilessly scourged and made to carry their own crosses to the site where they would be executed.

They were then stripped naked before their (outstretched) hands and legs were bound, with nails later sunk into the bound parts to fix the body on the cross.

The victim ultimately died due to “a combination of constrained blood circulation, organ failure and asphyxiation as the body strained under its own weight”.

For a quicker death, the legs were crushed with an iron club, “which prevented them from supporting the body’s weight and made inhalation more difficult, accelerating both asphyxiation and shock”.

It was horrible; it was meant to be horrible.

And this is how Man killed God.

It is believed crucifixion was later banned by Constantine the Great, Rome’s first Christian emperor, to honour Jesus, who was its most famous victim.

Human sacrifice

For Christians, this ultimate sacrifice, which unlocked the grace of eternal life and sealed the blood covenant between Man and God, is the essence of Christianity.

Human sacrifice is the ultimate sacrifice.

Ordinarily, throughout the ages, human beings always offered sacrifices in order to draw closer to God.

The Jews usually sacrificed animals, grain and money (korbanot), and this makes the sacrifice of a human being supreme.

This is why John 3 verse 16 (“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”) is probably the most revered and overquoted verse by Christians. Here, in Southern Africa in general and in Zimbabwe in particular, we understand this better than anyone else.

Our nations are built by human sacrifice and blood, as we all had to fight to unclasp the asphyxiating grip of colonialism by white settlers. That is why the region is predominantly under the sway of former liberation movements.

It is a point that was belaboured by one of CCC’s co-presidents Tendai Biti in Cape Town, South Africa, on March 14, 2024, at a meeting that had been convened by the Daily Maverick, a South Africa-based organisation that is increasingly aligning itself with the Oppeinheimer’s Brenthurst Foundation.

Biti himself is a creature of the Brenthurst Foundation.

The Bishop recently told you how most of the opposition political parties from the continent convened, at the behest of the foundation, in Gdansk, Poland, in June last year, and came up with a declaration that, in more ways than one, declared war on the former liberation movements.

Biti attended the meeting, and so, too, did Kizza Besigye, who has perennially lost elections to his former boss Yoweri Museveni; Raila Odinga, another serial loser of elections in Kenya; and Ivone Soares of Renamo, a party that has historically caused all sorts of problems in Mozambique.

Also in attendance were Alberto Costa Júnior, the leader of Unita, which is infamous for the bloody and costly 27-year civil war in Angola under Jonas Savimbi; Bobi Wine (Robert Kyagulani) of Uganda; Branco Brkic, the editor-in-chief of SA’s Daily Maverick (Branco Brkic); John Steenhuisen from SA’s racist Democratic Alliance; and Botswana’s former president Ian Khama.

And this is the who is who of sellouts on the continent. Kikikikiki.

Interestingly, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo and Lech Walesa later wrote an opinion editorial on August 14 last year that betrayed the essence of the Gdansk Declaration.

“There are many countries such as Zambia, Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Namibia where substantial progress towards democracy has been made,” they wrote.

“But there are others such as Uganda, Angola, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe where ‘liberation movements’ have hung onto power, stifling growth and development while a small elite has thrived at the expense of the people.”

The reference to “liberation movements” in the article is not accidental.

It is, therefore, not fortuitous that these were exactly Biti’s talking points at the Daily Maverick event in Cape Town on March 14.

“ . . . part of our challenge in Southern Africa is the control of the liberation ethos. Over 200 000 citizens (inaccurate statistic) in the Sub-Saharan region live under liberation movements — ZANU PF in Zimbabwe; the MPLA in Angola; Frelimo in Mozambique; Swapo in Namibia; Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCC) in the Republic of Tanzania; one could argue that Botswana, too, is under a liberation movement,” he said.

“But the challenge with the liberation movement is that, yes, they carried out a historical task, an important historical task, in the process and struggle for decolonisation. But the honeymoon was short-lived.

“Sixty-nine percent of the poorest people in South Africa vote the ANC. In Zimbabwe, where I come from, the ruling party finds dominance in the rural areas, where poverty is the order of the day. So poverty is weaponised. Ignorance is weaponised . . . I hope that the citizens gathered here will understand that on the 29th of May (the day when SA holds its elections) you have a historical mission of taking your fate back into your hands . . . ”

Did Biti call the majority of our people ignorant?

Sacred covenant

But this matters not at this juncture.

What matters is that four liberation movements — BDP (Botswana); Frelimo (Mozambique); Swapo (Namibia); and ANC (South Africa) — will be having their elections this year.

And ANC, the oldest liberation movement on the continent, seems to be the coveted prize, or scalp, especially after ZANU PF resoundingly won its own polls last year.

The ANC is under siege

The plan is obvious.

In the same way the Brenthurst Foundation purportedly conducted a “survey” that showed ex-CCC leader Nelson Chamisa would win last year’s elections in Zimbabwe, the organisation has since cooked up another “survey” predicting the ANC’s support will fall to 39 percent.

They want it to be cornered and forced to govern through coalitions.

The calculus is that the EFF, including Jacob Zuma’s MK party, as well as the Rise Mzansi party led by Songezi (not Sengezo) Zibi, which has since been blessed with a R17 million donation from the Oppeinheimers, would eat into the ANC support base.

Well, we wish them good luck.

Critically, at the material time Biti was in Cape Town, secretary-generals of liberation movements in the region were jetting into Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, for their routine Former Liberation Movements of Southern Africa meetings.

Interestingly, the chairmanship of the platform moved from ZANU PF’s Cde Obert Mpofu to Cde Fikile Mbalula of the ANC.

These are formidable parties that form the bulwark against Western hegemonic intrusion in this part of the world.

We fought and died together with them in the trenches.

Our covenant is bound by blood; it is unbreakable. Similarly, we also have a covenant with our departed comrades, some of whom have not been accounted for to date, as they lost their lives to establish our independent republics.

Their supreme sacrifices make our nation(s) sacred. All schemes by our detractors will come to naught.

Zimbabwe, Africa, will never be a colony again.

Bishop out!